Based on nothing better than a hunch, most religious people who are ‘straight’ think that they were born that way, but most of such people have a hard time conceding even the possibility that persons who are gay are born that way.

As it turns out, nobody is actually born any sexual orientation; whether heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or probably even asexual (lacking a desire for sex). That is if we are to believe the recently published special report on ‘Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the biological, psychological, and social sciences’, the most comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and recent scientific survey of research on homosexuality published in August 2016 in The New Atlantis — A Journal of Technology and Society.

The authors are two psychiatrists, Lawrence S Mayer, MB, MS, PhD; and Paul R McHugh, MD.

Lawrence S Mayer is a scholar in residence in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a professor of statistics and biostatistics at Arizona State University.

Paul R McHugh is a professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and was for 25 years the psychiatrist-in-chief at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

In this 144-page report the authors say, after a comprehensive review of research on twins, “There is virtually no evidence that anyone, gay or straight, is ‘born that way’, if that means their sexual orientation was genetically determined. But there is some evidence from the twin studies that certain genetic profiles probably increase the likelihood the person later identifies as gay or engages in same-sex sexual behaviour.” (p 31)

This is just one of several bombshells that the authors drop. Here’s another which could ransack aspects of the ruling of the chief justice of Belize in the Caleb Orozco case.

“The understanding of sexual orientation as an innate, biologically fixed property of human beings — the idea that people are ‘born that way’ is not supported by scientific evidence…The hypothesis that gender identity is an innate, fixed property of human beings that is independent of biological sex — that a person might be ‘a man trapped in a woman’s body’ or ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’ — is not supported by scientific evidence.” (p 7)

Later we learn, “While the general public may be under the impression that there are widely accepted scientific definitions of terms such as ‘sexual orientation’, in fact, there are not. [Lisa] Diamond’s assessment of the situation in 2003 is still true today: That ‘there is currently no scientific or popular consensus on the exact constellation of experiences that definitively ‘qualify’ an individual as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.’ ” (pages 24-25)

Perhaps the most shocking finding in the report relates to the ultra-controversial change of the sexual orientation/identity issue. On this issue the report says: “There is now considerable scientific evidence that sexual desires, attractions, behaviours, and even identities, can, and sometimes do, change over time. For findings in this area we can turn to the most comprehensive study of sexuality to date, the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.” (p 50)

Also, “Moreover, other population-based surveys suggest that sexual desire may be fluid for a considerable number of individuals, especially among adolescents as they mature through the early stages of adult development. In this regard, opposite-sex attraction and identity seem to be more stable than same sex or bisexual attraction and identity. This is suggested by data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (the “Add Health” study discussed earlier). This prospective longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of US adolescents starting in grades 7 – 12 began during the 1994 – 1995 school year, and followed the cohort into young adulthood, with four follow-up interviews (referred to as Waves I, II, III, IV in the literature). The most recent was in 2007 – 2008, when the sample was aged 24 – 32.” (p 51)

Thinking people must examine and refute these findings before deciding to retain their hunches.

clintchis@yahoo.com